God: Accused or Defended?: Solving the Unsolvable Paradox

By Larry E. Ford

God: Accused or Defended? tackles a prickly subject about whether or not God is responsible for allowing both natural evils and moral evils to exist in His creation. The book is a theodicy that unravels some of the most tangled and knotted issues involved in this paradox.

The biggest challenge is how to confront the various concepts held about God and what He is up to with humanity. Many theologians and philosophers have attempted to solve the apparent paradox by changing who or what God is. In that process, there have been four basic outcomes: (1) God must be redefined; (2) God cannot do anything about the situation; (3) God will not do anything about it; or (4) Its useless to think about, so it is best to abandon the faith. Using his many years of experience in biblical studies, the author resolves the paradox.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490876665

Larry E. Ford

Larry E. Ford lives in rural southwest Georgia. In God: Accused or Defended? he delivers a potent, spiritually challenging message with a fresh dose of straight talk and plain truth. Fifty years in the ministry, undergraduate degrees in German and theology, post-graduate degrees in theology and educational administration, a professional certification in English/literature, and eighteen years’ experience in the building trades make him more than qualified to deliver this inspiring message. Ford formally incorporated The Seventh Day Christian Assembly (a non-Adventist organization) in 1994. During the past twenty years, he has written a considerable offering of Christian educational outreach materials which he has offered free to the general public. You may find it on the church’s website, theseventhdaychristianassembly.org. These materials include a twelve-lesson Bible study course and a quarterly magazine, Spirit and Truth. Ever the optimist about growing the size and influence of his ministry, he continues to write books that challenge readers to understand God’s truth and increase their faith in it.

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Copyright © 2015 Larry E. Ford.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scriptures in this work are quoted from the King James Version of the Bible, unless otherwise noted. The author changes terms like thee, thou, thine, and other 17th Century expressions to more modern terms.

Other versions of the Bible used in this work are: The Anchor Bible, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, The Interpreter’s Bible, The Jerusalem Bible, The Living Bible, Martin Luther’s Die Heilige Schrift, The Modern Language Bible, James Moffatt’s The Bible: A New Translation, The New International Version, and The Revised Standard Version.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-7667-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7668-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7666-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015905993

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/29/2015

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: A Brief Survey of the Literature

2 A Priori

3 The Underlying Approach

4 Theodicy: A Defense or an Accusation?

5 Are Elohim Inherently Omniscient, or Do They Learn?

6 What God (Elohim) Planned

7 The Adversarial Spirits

8 The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

9 The Moral Problems Presented by the Independent Mind

10 And God Gave Them Up To…

11 Blessings and Curses

12 Vanity and the Bondage of Corruption

13 Prophecy: God’s Divine Timetable

14 Reconciling All Things to God

15 Inclusivity and Exclusivity

16 Conclusion

17 Afterthoughts

About the Author

I dedicate this book to my wife of nearly 48 years: Elaine Langley Ford (m. 12/17/67). She is the good wife of Proverbs 31. She is my constant companion, my very suitable mate, and the love of my life. In her, the joy of my life is full and complete. I cannot imagine a deeper, more satisfying love. It pleased God to give me a woman who is as close to being bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh as anyone could be after Eve was created for Adam. I am truly and wonderfully blessed to have her in my life and ministry.

I surrendered my life to God’s calling to this most adventuresome ministry 50 years ago. Thank you, Eternal Father, for your patience with me. May I ever be a good and profitable servant in service to Christ Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

Larry. E. Ford

"It shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the Lord your God will set you on high above all nations on the earth: and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God.

But it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day; that all of these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you." (Deuteronomy 28:1, 15 King James Version, modernized by the author)

See if you can wrap your mind around all of the natural and moral evil that has occurred among mankind in just the last 25 years. Try to wrap your mind around all of the hurt and pain and misery and suffering and death and destruction. The cost in life and limb and fortune and peace and well-being. Include the wars. The crimes—including murders and rapes and molestations and robberies. Add in the addictions and the excesses. Include perversions of every stripe. The floods and tornadoes. The hurricanes and tsunamis. Earthquakes and volcanoes and mudslides. Include every imaginable horror known to man and beast. Wait. Wait. Wait.

Now—for how much of that will you hold God personally responsible? How much of that could He have prevented? Why didn’t He—if He could have? Why does He allow bad things to happen to good people—if He is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful? You might be shocked by what God reveals about this subject in the Bible!

Foreword

T he Bible itself is a theodicy because it not only seeks to justify God and explain what He is up to, it also seeks to vindicate His word as being righteous and trustworthy, despite the natural and moral evils that seemingly plague His creation. Yet, it is a historic fact that many who have claimed to have a righteous relationship with Him have found little solace in Him when things have gone terribly wrong in their own corners of the world. It is not uncommon at all for them to ask: Why, God, have you allowed this to happen? It is not uncommon at all for them to peek out of the dark, hollow spaces to which they have retreated and cry: I do not know! And, I do not think that I ever will!

In the confusion that persists about why God has allowed natural or moral evils to occur, it is rare to find a thoroughly satisfying, thoroughly scriptural theodicy that gives a detailed, definitive answer. That is, until now.

Now, from the Spirit-led mind and heart of a well-trained, seasoned student of the Bible, we have a thoroughly researched and scripturally supported theodicy in which we can have great trust and confidence. In 77,000+ words, the author has dug into the source that reveals the mind of God (in a way that many have avoided) and sifted out the basis of God’s answer to Why, God, have you allowed this to happen?

This work is an extraordinary contribution to a new look at an old problem. It is a fresh breath of straight talk and plain truth. It is a book that thoroughly adheres to Paul’s admonition in 2 Timothy 2:15 to Study to shew yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Any person of faith who desires to have one of the great mysteries of God neatly and deftly unraveled for himself/herself needs this book in his/her personal library. It very easily could be used as a supplemental textbook in philosophy and religion courses in colleges, universities, and seminaries.

It is not a once-and-done kind of book. It is a keeper. It is a study book, a reference book, and a book to which you can resort over and again as long as you live—and still learn from it.

Preface

A bout September 23, 1956, my three-year-old baby sister Karon Lee was looking forward to her upcoming fourth birthday on September 30. At one point during the day, she let slip a private thought to my mother that there would be nobody at her birthday party but Jesus and God. My mother noted a strange glow about her head when she said it. Not knowing why the glow appeared or what it might mean, she hid it in her heart for future reference.

On September 26, 1956, my seven-and-one-half-year-old younger brother Lindsey decided to take our sister on a tour of the neighborhood, ultimately ending up on the other side of the highway, one block north of our house, to look at something of interest in a neighbor’s yard. When they decided to return home, my brother, assuming that our sister was right beside him, ran across the highway. On the other side of the highway, he looked back to see her still across the highway. Before he could react properly, a drunken driver came down the highway at a speed above 45 mph, honked his horn at her, and rammed about 2,700 pounds of automobile into her small, defenseless body as she, having been frightened by the horn-blast, bolted across the highway.

Once she was slammed against the asphalt, she was dragged until her clothing tore loose from the undercarriage. Then she was run over and left for dead on the highway as the driver sped away. He later came back to the scene and told the police that he thought he had run over a cardboard box or something. He never had to explain why he would blow his horn at a cardboard box. My sister lingered between life and death until she finally died on the day before her birthday, September 29, 1956.

My brother was never the same. My mother was never the same. None of the family was. The driver supposedly went crazy and served six months in a mental institution, subsequently left alone by authorities and never charged with vehicular homicide or manslaughter (voluntary or involuntary) or for driving under the influence. When my father went to the authorities to find out what they were going to do to him, he was told to go home because they were too busy.

I don’t remember the exact words at the funeral because I was focused so much on the intense outpouring of grief by family and friends. But, I do remember my mother later telling me of her firm belief that my sister had prophesied her own death and that she, indeed, had celebrated her birthday with Jesus and God. I am sure, because of subsequent conversations about the matter, that the prevailing conviction was that God, for whatever unknown reason, had decided to call her home. Because of her firm convictions about this incident, I’m not sure I could have written this book while my mother was still alive.

Here is where a so-called unresolved paradox is intertwined with Theodicy. The most salient questions that come out of this incident are simple: If God really wanted to take my sister home, why did He need an innocent seven-and-one-half-year-old boy, a drunken driver, and a speeding automobile weighing over 2,700 pounds to get the job done? Did my sister really die simply because God wanted her to do so at the tender age of four years in order to celebrate that birthday in heaven with Him and Jesus Christ? If so, why not let her die peacefully in her sleep, instead of being so brutally torn out of this life? Was she really given the spirit of prophecy to inform my mother ahead of time what was about to happen?

Are the ways of God really so mysterious and beyond knowing that He would not reveal to mankind, His crown of creation, why He does what He does? Are natural and moral evils really the tools that God uses to avenge Himself against His opponents and to secure the good for His followers? Or, is He desperately fighting hammer and tong against a powerful spirit foe that seems to be all but winning the great moral struggle? Here is where God is either to be accused or defended. If defended, how do you do that justly?

This and similar experiences in my life are the motivations I have for writing this work. I have skin in the game. I am spiritually driven to properly explain what the Holy Bible reveals about the answers to the above questions. I am not content to settle for religious clichés and warm and fuzzy feelings. I am not satisfied with spiritual-sounding superficiality.

Inasmuch as the Bible is largely regarded as the word of God Himself, this is tantamount to saying that you are going to be made privy to what God has revealed to mankind, the crown of His creation, in His word. In effect, you will be seeing how the unresolved paradox is actually resolved. You will be greatly encouraged by the answer. I have been spiritually blessed and equipped by God to present this most important work to you. May God bless you with eyes that see and ears that hear.

Larry E. Ford, Pastor

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge Harry and Anita Odom, Garland and June Croft, Robin Arwood Stone, and Jordan Croft for having been faithful students in and contributors to this ministry into which I have been called. I am fortunate to be associated with them in the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Their spiritual and material contributions to this effort are appreciated beyond what I have adequate words to express.

– One –

Introduction: A Brief Survey of the Literature

S olving the problem of the existence of evil in a world created by a God who is fully good (omni-benevolent), all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and everywhere at the same time (omnipresent) is the objective of a specific branch of theology and philosophy called theodicy . In 1710, a German philosopher named Gottfried Leibniz coined the term for an essay he wrote titled An essay of theodicy about the benevolence of God, the free will of man, and the origin of evil.

Leibniz undertook to show two things: (a) the presence of many evils does not conflict with God’s omni-benevolence, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence; and (b) the world in which we live is the best of all worlds, regardless of the natural and moral evils we have to endure. He coined the term theodicy from two Greek words: Theos (pronounced thee-ose—with a th sound as in throw) and dike (pronounced dee-kay). Theos means god and dike means justice. Thus, the expression is rendered the justice of God. So, the question arises about the justice of God in allowing or causing evil to exist in His creation.

Leibniz was not the only philosopher to ever give his views about the problem of evil. His essay, in fact, was an answer to a skeptic named Pierre Bayle, who, in his Dictionnaire historique et critique (Dictionary of history and criticism), tried to solve the problem of evil by simply denying the goodness and omnipotence of God. If God is not omni-benevolent and omnipotent, then there is little He can or will do about evil, even if He wants to do so. A couple of interesting things have arisen as a result of the conflict between these two men: (a) many who attempt to resolve the problem of evil do so by denying various characteristics of God, and (b) any treatise that attempts to resolve that problem is automatically called a theodicy.

The question I pose is whether or not Leibniz and Bayle took the issue far enough. In actual fact, if you are going to do justice in seeking a solution to the problem of evil, you cannot simply disregard one or more of the attributes of God. Neither can you limit the entirety of the arguments to the four attributes of God given above. On the other hand, you also should not attribute to God characteristics that He does not possess. There is reason to believe that there might also be the problem of not correctly defining the characteristics that have been assigned to Him.

For example: Does omniscience really mean that God knows all things in advance of their occurrence; thus, allowing Him time to set up the means to prevent the evil from harming mankind? What if omniscience really means the ability to know anything one wants to know? Would that alter the way the problem is resolved without the prospect of doing away with God’s omniscience just so you can say that God does not know what is coming, so He cannot do anything about it until it happens?

The Catholic Encyclopedia says that since one has to prove the existence of God and His attributes, then all that we know about God is brought under the domain of theodicy. As a result, theodicy comes under the realm of metaphysics, which is the study of the positive proofs of the existence and attributes of God and solving the problems presented by opposing difficulties (for example: the existence of evil). They propose the following definition:

Theodicy, therefore, may be defined as the science which treats of God through the exercise of reason alone. It is a science because it systematically arranges the contents of our knowledge about God and demonstrates, in the strict sense of the word, each of its propositions. But it appeals to nature [because theodicy] came to be synonymous with natural theology [that is, metaphysics)] as its only source of proof, whereas theology sets forth our knowledge of God as drawn from the sources of supernatural revelation (p. 1).

In this definition, they clearly explain that theodicy appeals to nature as its only source of proof; whereas, theology appeals to knowledge of God drawn from supernatural revelation. Is there any reason that the answer to the theodicy paradox cannot be understood from theology, the supernatural revelation of God? This will be part of the investigation undertaken in this study.

Theodicy seeks to justify God either in ordaining or permitting natural and moral evil (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, vol. III [S-Z]; Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.: Chicago; 1966; p. 2370). Natural evil consists of those things occurring in nature that bring physical and/or mental pain, injury, grief, and death (for examples: earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves, tornadoes, drought, plague, et cetera). Moral evil consists of moral choices made by God, adversarial spirits, or humans that bring physical and/or mental pain, injury, grief, and death (for examples: rape, murder, physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, torture, theft, treachery, et cetera). The problem pursued in this study exists in how the justification is framed and how God is characterized in order to do so. It opens up the discussion about whether or not God should be accused or defended. We will come to understand whether or not God is just (that is, reasonable and morally and/or legally right) in allowing evil to exist in His creation.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines theodicy like this: the vindication of the divine attributes, especially justice and holiness, in respect to the existence of evil; a writing, or theory intended to justify the ways of God to men. So, according to this definition, theodicy provides a defense of God in the face of the problem of evil. It also adds two more attributes not mentioned above: justice and holiness.

The question that arises here is why it should be the proper scope or business of man to vindicate God. Should not God be accountable for vindicating His own cause? After all, He is described in Deuteronomy 32:4 as being the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He (KJV). Bildad the Shuhite asked: Doth God pervert judgment? Or, doth the Almighty pervert justice? (Job 8:3). We will investigate how God vindicates Himself.

The Greek philosopher Epicurus posed three interesting propositions that are related to this:

(a) If God is willing to prevent evil but is unable to do so, then He is powerless;

(b) If God is able to prevent evil, but is unwilling to do so, then He is spiteful and ill-willed; and

(c) If God is both able and willing to prevent evil [and evil exists regardless of this], then from what source does evil arise?

In this you should be able to see a basis for either accusing God or defending Him. It is one thing for God to allow evil to exist, but it is another thing for God to cause evil to exist.

At the same time, though, you should wonder if Epicurus presented all of the possible scenarios. For instance: If God is both willing and able to prevent evil, why would He choose not to do so in all circumstances—or even in only one circumstance? On the other hand, are all circumstances in which one is delivered from or spared from either natural or moral evil really the work of God? What roles do time and chance play in these questions (Ecc. 9:11)? Also, what roles do discipline and training play (Heb. 5:5-9; 12)? If God is loving, all-knowing, and willing, but powerless, how can He be blamed at all—except, maybe, for creating something over which He has no control? If God is to be blamed, are there others who are also guilty to a lesser, equal, or greater degree?

Ronald M. Green, in his article in The Encyclopedia of Religion titled Theodicy, lays out the problem as follows: Juxtaposing the existence of evil and suffering with the concepts that: (a) God is absolutely good and compassionate and (b) that He is all-powerful and all-knowing presents a logical trilemma (ed. Mircea Eliade, et al; New York: Macmillan, 1987; 14:430-441). Let’s understand this.

A dilemma occurs when one is faced with making a choice between two equally undesirable alternatives (ex.: jumping out of the 50th floor window or burning to death). A trilemma, therefore, would present a third undesirable alternative (ex.: jumping out of the 50th floor window, burning to death, or waiting for the firemen to remove all of the debris in the stairwells so they can climb the stairs and save you before the building collapses).

Green says that theodicy would be the effort to resist admitting that a logical trilemma actually exists. He adds that theodicy attempts to show that God’s power and goodness are actually compatible with the existence of evil and suffering (Ibid.). I’m not sure that Green is following the specifics of these definitions because he says that two of the ideas would be logical, but adding the third would make it illogical. The lemma part of the terms dilemma and trilemma has to do with undesirable alternatives. In what follows, it would be difficult to say that God’s omnipotence and goodness are undesirable alternatives.

It is generally held that there are three major types of traditional theodicies:

(1) One that denies or limits the meaning of God’s omnipotence;

(2) One that denies or limits the meaning of God’s goodness; and

(3) One that denies or limits the meaning of the reality of evil.

Many who believe in God see a contradiction in these three statements that they consider integral or central in addressing the problem of evil: (1) that God is omnipotent; (2) that God is fully good (or loving, or beneficent); and (3) that evil and suffering exist in the world.

These questions present what is called either an unresolved paradox or a conundrum (a riddle like that presented by the Sphinx). Based on Green’s so-called trilemma, I think that they provoke circular reasoning: omnipotence + omni-benevolence + evil and suffering. Are omnipotence and omni-benevolence undesirable attributes in God? Note the argument below.

Green’s trilemma suggests that the contradiction is negated if